Self-governing trust schools are New Labour's latest big idea for education. But confusion still reigns over their structure and how they will be governed in practice. Tash Shifrin investigates
The Local Government Pension Scheme's 85-year rule has to go, even for some existing members. With members living so much longer, carrying on with it is neither fair nor affordable, whatever the...
Yes, the government missed its 2004/05 target for reducing the number of children in poverty but it has made some heartening progress towards the overall goal. Ian Kearns explains what it needs to...
Auditors this week called on Whitehall departments to improve the data underpinning crucial government targets amid fears that more than half of Public Service Agreements are flawed.
The Treasury's public sector pay committee has created a 'tension' between ministers' policy of local pay flexibility and the chancellor's requirement that all major remuneration decisions must pass...
Local authorities have made efficiency savings, yet ever-increasing social care demands continue to put pressure on their budgets. It's time to come up with a fair and sustainable system of funding
At first glance the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive scheme seems to be a good idea. But it does away with the principle of equalisation, distributing funds regardless of councils' needs or...
Next week's Budget looks like being a return to form for the chancellor, thanks to a big rise in tax receipts. But is he on course to hit his political as well as economic targets? Peter Riddell...
Treasury officials will shortly report to Chancellor Gordon Brown on the financial implications of devolving new powers to city-regions, as the local government reform agenda took another firm step...
Two former permanent secretaries have told a committee of MPs that a weak Parliament is allowing a dominant government to pass legislation without proper scrutiny.
The proposed Planning Gain Supplement threatens to remove rather than strengthen the powers of local authorities that need to expand housing, while allowing central government to divert the cash...
In 2003, angry pensioners were taking to the streets as council tax soared, unchecked by government. This year, ministers cracked the whip and councils meekly complied. Tony Travers explains what's...
The Queen and the Prince of Wales led more than 500 guests at the opening of the £67m new home of the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff on March 1 St David's Day.
David Rowland, the permanent secretary at the Department for Transport, has been asked by the Treasury to co-ordinate Whitehall's latest attempt at a multi-billion pound savings drive through shared...
City-regions offer a new take on local democracy, holding out the idea of governance that reflects the urban economic realities. But these will only work if the hinterland is also involved in...
Most local authorities want to make the most of their community powers and include social and environmental benefits in the contracts they award. But procurement law can be problematic
In a week when the Women and Work Commission found gender inequality to be very much alive, the EOC chair tells Sally Gainsbury about the equality challenges facing the public sector
Social mobility has stalled, despite the government's best efforts to raise the aspirations of children from working-class homes. Effective reform of local services will be crucial to turning this...
More than half of the savings made under Whitehall's efficiency agenda have effectively been wiped out by an unexpected rise in the cost of staff pensions across two sectors this year, it has emerged.
Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber is urging the government to hold its nerve and introduce a state-run national pensions scheme, warning ministers that the financial services...
Whitehall's counter-terrorism strategy since the London bombings has focused on reducing risks, but communicating that to the public has proved difficult.
& is a problem halved. But not when public bodies can't agree on the best ways to collaborate. Judy Hirst explains why sharing services is so hard to do
